After five successful seasons of "Fixer Upper" on HGTV, Joanna and Chip Gaines are best known for their show in which they sell houses and style them for lucky clients in Waco, Texas.

But the Gaineses have come a long way from their small business flipping houses. Nowadays, it's safe to say they've built a nationally recognized lifestyle brand.

They opened a bakery, publish a quarterly journal, and have their own home paint and wallpaper line, among other things.

Along the way they've stayed true to their roots in Waco, often lifting up other small business owners with them.

A longtime fan of the show, I decided to get off my couch and head to Waco last June to check out its "Fixer Upper" transformation.

First, I had to get there. I flew into Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, rented a car, and drove about 100 miles north to Waco. It's about equidistant from the Dallas airport.

Back before "Fixer Upper" the TV show, while Chip Gaines was flipping houses, Joanna Gaines had a dream to run a boutique home-goods shop. The original Magnolia store she opened still stands off a busy street, but they recently moved their business to a bigger store. You can drive by, but the store is closed.

Now you can visit the Magnolia Market at the Silos instead. The Silos were an abandoned fixture in Waco until Joanna and Chip bought them and relocated their shop next door.

To read more about the journey from the small Magnolia shop to the Silos, check out "The Magnolia Story," Chip and Joanna's recently released memoir.

• Netflix is getting smoked as the tech selloff continues. 
• It's still one of the best performing tech stocks in recent months. 

Shares of Netflix dropped as much as 7.2% Wednesday as the tech sector at large remained under pressure, continuing its slump fueled by fears of a crack down on Chinese investment in US tech companies.

The stock is now down 10% for the week. 

Facebook began to drag the sector down last week, officially entering a bear market, when the Cambridge Analytics data scandal came to light. Ongoing fears of increased regulation have dragged down Twitter as well, which has also lost about 10% this week.

Amazon, largely seen as one of Netflix's biggest competitors on the video-content front, was also down more than 6% Wednesday after an Axios report said President Trump wanted to go after the company.

Netflix has been one of the top performing stocks in recent months, outpacing all of its FAANG peers, but Wall Street appears to have changed course in recent weeks. Analysts polled by Bloomberg have an average price target of $282 for the stock, just below where shares are currently trading. 

Netflix is up 42% so far in 2018.

SEE ALSO: Netflix gets whacked after report says Trump will crack down on Chinese companies investing in the US

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NOW WATCH: How Jay-Z and Diddy used their fame to make millions off of 'cheap grapes'

• Topshop heiress Chloe Green is reportedly having a baby with "hot felon" Jeremy Meeks.
• Green is the daughter of billionaire Sir Phillip Green, a high-roller dubbed the "British Donald Trump" who's known for partying with celebrities like Kate Moss, Beyoncé, and Leonardo DiCaprio. 
• The heiress has been making headlines for years, appearing on a reality show, launching a fashion line, and socializing with celebrities — including her ex-boyfriend Marc Anthony. 

Topshop heiress Chloe Green is making headlines after reports surfaced that she is having a baby with the "hot felon." 

The 27-year-old heiress and Jeremy Meeks, the 34-year-old model who became famous after his mug shot went viral, are expecting their first child together, Us Weekly reported on Monday. 

Green is no stranger to fame. As the daughter of billionaire Sir Philip Green — the chairman of Topshop owner Arcadia — the heiress has lived her life in the spotlight. 

Here's a look inside Green's glamorous life:

SEE ALSO: Jared Kushner's brother is breaking his political silence following Trump's election — here's everything we know about the millionaire entrepreneur who's dating model Karlie Kloss

Green is just 27 years old but has been making headlines for years.

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Her parents, Phillip and Tina Green, are worth an estimated $4.9 billion.

The couple purchased the retail company Arcadia Group in 2002.

Source: Forbes

Sir Phillip Green is a controversial figure, dubbed by Vanity Fair the "British Donald Trump" for his "flamboyance and arrogance."

The businessman has been accused of dodging taxes and enriching himself by allowing the iconic retailer British Home Stores to fail. 

"In this era of austerity the British people seem to have had quite enough of the retailing tycoon, with his legal tax dodges, his complicated corporate structure, and his hyperinflated lifestyle, replete with a helicopter, a Gulfstream G550 jet, and three yachts — including one, Lionheart, which is 295 feet long and reportedly has a swimming pool, a helipad, and a beauty salon," Vanity Fair reported in 2016. 

Few games are as gorgeous as this:

That's "Far Cry 5," a brand new game for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC from the publisher behind blockbusters like "Assassin's Creed." It's outrageously pretty, set in the wilds of modern day Montana. 

When you're not taking down the violent religious cult that lives in the game's fictional "Hope County," you'll assuredly be awed by the sweeping vistas and lush vegetation.

Check it out:

SEE ALSO: Amid an ongoing gun debate and the March for Our Lives protests, 'Far Cry 5' couldn't feel more out of place

Much of "Far Cry 5" is spent running through the woods of Montana with guns in-hand. Thankfully, the woods are lush and vibrant.

It looks like wilderness because, ya know, we're talking about Montana here — it's pretty wild!

"Far Cry 5" takes place on the most beautiful day of the year. And it's a massive open world, so you can go wherever you want right from the beginning.

• Netflix pays a group of 30 people to binge-watch TV and film on its platform and label the content with category tags and metadata.
• Fast Company recently profiled a professional "Netflix tagger," who described how her team develops descriptive "tags" for the service's recommendation algorithm and content sorting.
• Netflix currently has several job openings for the position. 

If you've ever found yourself wishing you could get paid to binge-watch TV and films, Netflix might actually be able to hook you up with a job.

Fast Company published a profile of a professional "Netflix tagger" on Wednesday, describing how the streaming service currently employs a group of 30 people whose sole job is to watch Netflix content and "tag" TV shows and films with category information and metadata. 

Sherrie Gulmahamad, the "tagger" profiled, discussed how her team develops Netflix's subjective and often bizarrely specific "category tags," which the service uses in its recommendation algorithm to label and sort content for viewers' discovery. 

"We work with a sprawling palette of tones and storylines to capture the spirit of our content, and when it comes to those sorts of tags, we can be more editorial," Gulmahamad said.

For example, Gulmahamad listed a long series of the available tags for "supernatural content" on the platform, which she said included "zombies, witches, dragons, cannibals, Bigfoot, mad scientists, mutants, magical creatures, angels, demons and even 'evil kids.'" 

Gulmahamad described the job as "like being a librarian" with a "broad knowledge base of how TV shows or movies are related," where you spend up to 20 hours a week watching Netflix content. 

There are currently several available listings for the "tagging" job, officially labeled "editorial analyst" on the company's website.

Qualifications for the job include: "Ability to distinguish nuances within different movie and TV genres," "Ability to distill the essence of a movie/show and share findings in a concise manner," and "5+ years experience ... in the film and/or television industry."

Read Fast Company's profile here.

SEE ALSO: 39 of the best secret categories on Netflix and how to find them

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NOW WATCH: Why 555 is always used for phone numbers on TV and in movies

• Former UN Ambassador Susan Rice was named to the Netflix board of directors on Wednesday.
• This led to outrage on social media, with some threatening to cancel their Netflix subscriptions.
• The anger primarily stemmed from previous (incorrect) comments Rice made about the 2012 attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya.

 
On Wednesday, former UN Ambassador Susan Rice was named to the Netflix board of directors, leaving some customers outraged by the choice and threatening to cancel their Netflix memberships.

"We are delighted to welcome Ambassador Rice to the Netflix board," Netflix CEO Reed Hastings said in a statement on Wednesday. "For decades, she has tackled difficult, complex global issues with intelligence, integrity and insight and we look forward to benefiting from her experience and wisdom."

But critics of Rice disagreed with Hastings' characterization, and they voiced their displeasure on social media platforms like Twitter, where Rice was called a "liar" and a "criminal" by various users.

Why did the appointment of Rice lead to such anger?

Days after the September 11, 2012, attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya, then-UN Ambassador Rice went on the Sunday news shows and said the attack was due to protests over a US-made YouTube video. GOP Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and John McCain of Arizona suggested Rice was part of a political cover-up heading into the November presidential elections.

The Obama administration later said the attack was a pre-planned terrorist act and not a protest that turned violent. The attack led to four Americans being killed, including US Ambassador to Libya, J. Christopher Stevens.

Since then, Rice's name has provoked the instant rage of many, especially US conservatives.

Here are a few examples of people who have spoken out on Twitter against the appointment, some of whom threatened to cancel the streaming service or have used the hashtag #BoycottNetflix:

Business Insider contacted Netflix for comment but did not receive an immediate response.

SEE ALSO: R Kelly accused of sexual misconduct with 14-year-old girl he was keeping as a "pet"

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NOW WATCH: Why 555 is always used for phone numbers on TV and in movies

• In 2016, Microsoft bought a startup called Beam, a startup that had begun as a "Minecraft" server hosting service, and which evolved into an alternative to Amazon's Twitch streaming juggernaut.
• Beam was cofounded by one Matt Salsamendi, who was only 18 at the time of acquisition. He dropped out of high school to build the company.
• In 2017, Microsoft rebranded Beam into Mixer. Now, Salsamendi says that Mixer is well-positioned to establish its own foothold in the streaming market, and can coexist with Twitch. 
• However, he says that Mixer has certain advantages, and a focus on community, that will set it apart.

Amazon's Twitch has become a media juggernaut in its own right: the game-streaming service actually pulls in more viewers than CNN or MSNBC, even on nights where Drake isn't smashing viewership records with a game of "Fortnite."

You might be less familiar with Mixer, Microsoft's own streaming platform, which is integrated with Windows 10 and the Xbox One games console. It's a major priority for Microsoft, which has said in the past that it sees video game viewing hours eclipsing playing hours, if they haven't already.

Mixer still has only a fraction of Twitch's audience, but it's winning over a dedicated fan base. Not only does it offer less streaming delay than competitors like Twitch, but it also offers a more tight knit community that's seen by gamers as friendlier than the other guys. 

Mixer's product leader is Matt Salsamendi, who sold his startup Beam to Microsoft in August 2016, after it won a best-of-show award at TechCrunch Disrupt that same year. At the time, Salsamendi was 18, and his cofounder James Boehm was 20 — Salsamendi even dropped out of high school to build it. In 2017, Microsoft rebranded Beam as Mixer.

Salsamendi, now 19, sees the world of streaming as big enough for both Microsoft and Amazon. People like to think of the two as competitors, but "it doesn't have to be like that," says Salsamendi. The whole medium of video game streaming is so big, and still growing so fast, that Twitch and Mixer can happily coexist.

"There's absolutely room for more than one platform," says Salsamendi. 

And so, Salsamendi is focused on getting streamers to try out Mixer not through aggressive marketing tactics or financial incentives, but by slowly and steadily figuring out what Mixer does better than anybody else. 

"We want them to move because it is right for them," says Salsamendi. 

To that end, Mixer has been steadily building out unique features that other platforms don't offer. Salsamendi is a personal fan of HypeZone, a Mixer feature that automatically tunes you in to a "Fortnite: Battle Royale" or "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds" match that's within minutes of ending. When a victory is won, it changes channel to another match. Salsamendi describes it as like "speed-dating for streamers."

Salsamendi says that he hopes and expects that Mixer will add support for more games to HypeZone soon. 

Which leads into another way that Mixer hopes to grow. Because of the fact that Mixer gets the streaming delay (what sports fans might call a tape delay) down to under a second, Salsamendi sees Mixer as opening the door for new kinds of interactivity in video games. To that end, Mixer is wooing game developers to integrate their titles with the platform.

The flagship example of this integration is the forthcoming "Darwin Project" for PC and Xbox One. It's a battle royale game, in the vein of "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds." The twist is that anyone watching a game in progress via Mixer can vote to have areas of the playing field closed off, or have everybody in the match gang up on one player. Players have a good time, and developers can win more dedicated fans. 

"We want you to grow community around what we call a 'watch-first' game," he says. 

To kickstart developer adoption, Salsamendi says that Mixer has been working with Microsoft's own game studios to integrate new features. For instance, Mixer worked with the team behind Microsoft's recent multiplayer pirate adventure "Sea of Thieves" to create costreaming, a feature that lets multiple streamers broadcast at once. 

Similarly, Salsamendi has gotten to work closely with Microsoft subsidiary Mojang, the developer of "Minecraft," to bring interactive elements for streamers. He describes the experience of working with Mojang as "kind of surreal" — before it was Mixer, Salsamendi's Beam got its start as a "Minecraft" server hosting business when he was 13 years old.

"I got my start in the games business through Minecraft," says Salsamendi, who ran servers out of his childhood bedroom. "My parents were like, 'what are you doing?'"

Ultimately, while Twitch keeps growing — Amazon has made its own overtures to game developers with interactive Twitch features — Salsamendi believes that Mixer's focus on community and making sure that everyone feels like part of something is what's going to set it apart. 

The question Mixer is set to answer, he says: "What would it look like to build a streaming platform where every user had a voice?"

SEE ALSO: Amazon's video game boss gave us the best answer for why it spent $970 million to buy Twitch

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NOW WATCH: A deer wreaking havoc in ‘GTA V' has become an unlikely Twitch star

• Invitations went out last week for the royal wedding which will take place on May 19.
• In all the excitement most people missed a subtle detail on the invite that reveals she was once married, say experts.
• In the invitation Meghan Markle is referred to as "Ms."
• Royal experts speculate this is because she was once married.

There was excitement last week when Prince Harry and Meghan Markle sent out the invitations to their May wedding "made with American black and gold ink on English card," in a symbol of their transatlantic union.

But most people missed a subtle detail on the invitation that reveals she was once married, according to royal observers.

The invitation read: "His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales K.G., K.T. requests the pleasure of the company of (name) at the marriage of His Royal Highness Prince Henry of Wales with Ms. Meghan Markle at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle on Saturday 19th May 2018 at 12 noon followed by a reception at Windsor Castle."

Instead of referring to Markle as "Miss," it said "Ms."

This differed to that of the royal wedding for the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge in 2011 in which Middleton was referred to as "Miss Catherine Middleton."

"Ms" is the correct way to address a divorced woman according to proper etiquette, says royal commentator and manners coach William Hanson, who told the Mail Online that it is first time the royal household has acknowledged it.

"The royal household, in particular the Queen, has never before acknowledged the honourific Ms — regardless of whether it was being used to signify a divorced woman or one who did not feel her marital status was of importance.

"It was first used in connection to Meghan in the November engagement announcement and since then has been used throughout the royal household's communications, on press releases, invitations, and social media," he went on.

"It is another subtle sign that the royal household is moving with the times."

Kensington Palace confirmed last week that guests had been invited to a service at St George's Chapel on May 19 followed by a lunchtime reception at St George's Hall, hosted by the Queen.

Around 200 guests have also been invited to an evening reception at Frogmore House in the evening, hosted by Prince Charles.

SEE ALSO: Here's what time Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's royal wedding will start where you live

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NOW WATCH: Harvard professor Steven Pinker explains the disturbing truth behind Trump's 2 favorite phrases

• "The Americans" had its sixth and final season premiere Wednesday on FX.
• The Emmy-nominated series is about KGB spies hiding in plain sight as an American family in DC.
• While it's never had high ratings, it's a favorite for critics and has a loyal following.
• Business Insider recently talked to the showrunners about the final season, the characters fans wanted them to kill off, and why it was so great working for FX CEO John Landgraf. 

For years, critics have agreed that FX's "The Americans" is the best show on television.

"The Americans" follows Philip and Elizabeth Jennings, KGB spies living as Americans with two kids (who don't know their parents' secret) in suburban DC in the early 80s. Philip (Matthew Rhys) is more optimistic about American life than Elizabeth (Keri Russell), which leads to issues in their work and personal lives.

The show came quietly in 2013, back when shows including "Mad Men" and "Breaking Bad" were still on the air, and "Game of Thrones" was still in its early seasons.

But as those prestige dramas came to an end or started to lose their spark, critics began to notice "The Americans," which was always on the same level. And loyal TV fans caught on, too. The show's been nominated for the Emmy for best drama and its stars Rhys and Russell have been deservedly nominated for two Emmys, though they haven't won yet. Margot Martindale won a best guest actress Emmy in 2015 for her role as Claudia, Philip and Elizabeth's handler. 

Now in its sixth and final season, "The Americans" is building up to a tense ending.

Business Insider recently spoke to showrunners Joel Fields and Joe Weisberg (the show's creator and former CIA officer) about the final season's significant time jump, their relationship with FX, which characters fans wanted them to kill off, and where all the many wigs Philip and Elizabeth wear throughout the series ended up when the show wrapped.

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.

Carrie Wittmer: Season five ended in 1984 and season six starts in 1987. The time jump is pretty seamless and obvious without screaming, “Hey, it’s 1987 now!" Why did you decide on this time specifically?

Weisberg: We talked a lot about this. We wanted to do 1987 because we wanted to get to a point where Gorbachev had been in power for a couple years and getting into the swing of things because that was really gonna provide a challenge for Philip and Elizabeth. Everything comes down to the marriage on this show. And we've realized Philip and Elizabeth were not going to have the same perspective on those changes on reform in the Soviet Union. And since Philip has quit spying, he's able to give a couple years for that to sink in on their marriage.

Wittmer: Philip and Elizabeth are probably further apart then we’ve ever seen them. Was this significant riff in their marriage something you planned on happening this late in the series?

Fields: Yes, that was a really big part of what we wanted to achieve in this time jump. The notion that marriage is a complicated journey. And where we ended the prior season, with Elizabeth doing something very loving and supportive and understanding for her husband by suggesting that he stop doing the [spy] work that was causing him so much pain. Three years later, even though that came from the best of places, it's extremely challenging for their relationship.

Wittmer: Did you have an ending planned from the beginning of the series?

Weisberg: Both of us have similar personalities. We're planners. And a big part of how we write is planning things way far in advance. But we're also big believers in not sticking to your plan when you find a better plan. So there were lots of stories that went in new directions and some of the most fun we had on the show was allowing the characters and the stories to surprise us along the way.

Wittmer: This show always had pretty low ratings, but FX still gave you six seasons. Were you ever worried about getting canceled?

Fields: FX has really, from the beginning, made clear that they're buying the show and they want it to be as good as it can be, not as popular as it can be. That was something we heard really clearly from John Landgraf [CEO of FX] from the beginning. In particular between seasons one and two, when they put a lot of thought into what might be done to expand the audience, and ultimately they said that the thing that was important was to continue to make the show better and better, and hope the audience would follow. And that's been great for us.

Weisberg: With a little less attention we were able to focus and do our work. We could do our thing without being overwhelmed by attention. It was pretty great. Then we started to get more attention and that was great, too. It's very nice to be recognized so I think from our perspective, we almost couldn't dream it up any better.

Wittmer: How are you feeling about the end?

Fields: It's strange to feel that this journey is coming to an end. Endings are natural and if you're telling a dramatic story, you need an ending otherwise things will be flat. But when you're having a great experience in life you also don't want it to end. So there's a lot of mixed feelings. For me, and I think I can speak for Joe, too, the main feeling is gratitude. As sad as we are to see this journey come to an end, it's hard to feel that anything exceeds the gratitude for how great the journey was.

Weisberg: I'm having trouble finding something to be bitter about, but I'm looking for it.

Fields: But my gratitude does eclipse the bitterness.

Wittmer: One of my favorite characters on the series is Pastor Tim. In season 5, he was sent to South America because he knew the Jennings' secret. How’s he doing these days?

Fields: I thought you were going to say the mail robot.

Weisberg: We both thought you were going to say the mail robot...

(Note: the Mail Robot is exactly what it sounds like: a robot that delivers mail ... at the FBI headquarters. It is based on a real thing that existed at the FBI, and became so popular on the show that it has its own Twitter account).

Fields: Pastor Tim was a really important character for us. That whole journey for Paige was such a significant part of her development. And we really wanted to portray a good liberal Christian church and minister. It's something you don't see a lot on television now and that kind of ministry, it's not as front and center. These days you see much more by of the right wing evangelical variety of Christianity and of Christian ministers. But my dad was a liberal rabbi and a lot of his close friends were liberal ministers who had grown up with him in the civil rights movement and were really, really passionate social activists. It was a lot of fun to have that be a part of Paige's journey.

Wittmer: It would've been interesting if he died.

Weisberg: One of the interesting things for us on the show has been to discover that the audience wants the strangest people to die. There was a long period of time when they kept wanting us to kill Pastor Tim. And then a lot of people were very bitter about Paige. They wanted Paige to die!

Wittmer: What? 

Fields: I'm a big Paige fan. A lot of people wanted Paige to die.

Wittmer: That's upsetting.

Fields: It's very upsetting! And from our perspective we're like, 'How many people do we have to kill?!' Although that's not how we decide who to kill. But sometimes the nice people have to go.

Wittmer: What happens to all the wigs now that you're done shooting?

Weisberg: That's a good question.

Fields: They really should go to the Smithsonian.

Wittmer: I agree.

Weisberg: As with all these things, they get boxed up. Just as we were walking past the stages and you see these sets that we've lived with for six seasons and some of them are just in these dumpsters. There's a big dumpster outside the office ...

Fields: I don't want to think about the wigs in the dumpster! I think they're probably in glass cases in a nuclear bomb shelter somewhere.

SEE ALSO: All 43 notable FX original TV shows, ranked from worst to best by critics — from 'Atlanta' to 'The Americans'

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NOW WATCH: Why 555 is always used for phone numbers on TV and in movies

• President Trump made a personal phone call to Roseanne Barr to congratulate her on the high ratings for the "Roseanne" revival.
• The revival premiered two episodes back to back on ABC Tuesday night.
• In the revival, Roseanne is a Trump supporter, like in real life. 

President Trump made a phone call Wednesday to "Roseanne" star Roseanne Barr to congratulate her on the high ratings for the return sitcom's reboot on ABC, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders confirmed to The New York Times. 

On Tuesday night, ABC aired two back-to-back episodes of "Roseanne." It generated impressive ratings, with a 5.1 rating in adults 18-49 and 18.2 million viewers for the entire hour, according to Variety. For reference, NBC’s reboot of “Will & Grace” had 10.2 million viewers for its premiere in fall 2017. The ratings for the "Roseanne" reboot were also higher than they were for the series finale in 1997, which is staggering in a time of cord cutters and streaming. 

Trump was reportedly "enthralled" with "Roseanne's" TV ratings and was likely also impressed with the content. "Roseanne" depicts a working class family in the Midwest, and speaks to the kind of people who support Trump.

Fox News was also impressed. Sean Hannity tweeted "the 'Proud Deplorable' smashes expectations" Wednesday.

In the first episode that aired, Roseanne is a Trump supporter and hasn't been on speaking terms with her Hillary-supporting sister Jackie (Oscar nominee Laurie Metcalf of "Lady bird") since the election. Things have gotten so bad that Roseanne pretends Jackie has died.

Barr has publicly defended Trump in real life, just as she has on screen. In an interview with the Times on Tuesday, Barr said she decided to make her character on "Roseanne" a Trump supporter because she thought it would be an “accurate portrayal” of working-class Americans.

On "Good Morning America" Thursday morning, Barr referenced her conversations with Trump: "We just kind of had a private conversation but we talked about a lot of things and he’s just happy for me."

Barr also acknowledged their mutual interest in ratings. "He really understands ratings and how they measure things, and that’s kind of been an interest of mine too," she said.

SEE ALSO: The 'Roseanne' premiere tackles the American political divide over Trump head-on and fans have mixed feelings

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NOW WATCH: This is how LUSH makes its solid, packaging-free shampoo — which saved the use of 15 million plastic bottles in 2016

• Actor and comedian Will Ferrell said he would delete his Facebook account over the site's handling of the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
• Ferrell said the data firm's "misuse of millions of Facebook users' information" undermined US democracy.
• Ferrell isn't the first actor to delete his Facebook recently.

Actor and comedian Will Ferrell is showing his displeasure with Facebook's handling of the Cambridge Analytica controversy by deleting his account on the social-media site. 

In a post to the site on Tuesday, Ferrell announced he would be deleting his Facebook account "in 72 hours" (to "give this message enough time to get across to my fans and followers").

Ferrell cited "Cambridge Analytica’s misuse of millions of Facebook users’ information in order to undermine our democracy and infringe on our citizens’ privacy" as his reason for deleting his account.

Ferrell went on to say he was "further appalled to learn that Facebook’s reaction to such a violation was to suspend the account of the Cambridge Analytica whistleblower."

Earlier this month it was revealed that data firm Cambridge Analytica collected information from 50 million Facebook users to aid Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign. Cambridge Analytica whistleblower Christopher Wylie's Facebook account was disabled after the news broke. Facebook also suspended Cambridge Analytica — two years after the alleged data breach.

Ferrell isn't the only actor to delete his Facebook account recently. Jim Carrey — who has been at the center of his own controversies over political drawings he has posted to Twitter — said last month that he was deleting his Facebook page and dumping stock because Facebook "profited from Russian interference in our elections and they're still not doing enough to stop it."

Carrey also addressed the Cambridge Analytica scandal last week with a drawing on Twitter with the caption "Who are you sharing your life with? #regulatefacebook."

Ferrell's full post is below:

"Hi Friends,

I’m reaching out to let you know that in 72 hours I will be deleting my Facebook account. I am not deleting it immediately, in order to give this message enough time to get across to my fans and followers.

I have always had an aversion to social media and have primarily used it as a tool to help support our work at Funny Or Die, some of my personal projects, as well as charity causes that I am passionate about. Facebook allowed me to promote and share the work of many dedicated and talented individuals who deserved recognition.

SEE ALSO: Jim Carrey has taken his criticism of Trump to a new level with a sexually explicit drawing of the president

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NOW WATCH: Why 555 is always used for phone numbers on TV and in movies

• The gorgeous, controversial game "No Man's Sky" is back.
• The space exploration game is headed to the Xbox One this summer.
• Alongside the new platform, "No Man's Sky" is getting a major new update called, "No Man's Sky NEXT."
• Few details are known about the "NEXT" expansion. It's being called "the biggest update" to the game thus far. "It's an important next step on a longer journey for us and the community," Hello Games lead Sean Murray said.

One of the biggest games of 2016 is coming back in 2018, and it's headed to a new console: "No Man's Sky" arrives on the Xbox One this summer, alongside a brand new expansion dubbed, "NEXT."

The game is currently available on the PlayStation 4 and PC, where it received several major updates since launching in September 2016. Those content additions — the Foundation, Pathfinder, and Atlas Rises expansions — will come included in the Xbox One version of the game. The "NEXT" expansion is also included in the Xbox One release, and will come to PlayStation 4 and PC at the same time for free.

Additionally, the game's getting a graphical overhaul to take advantage of the Xbox One X's 4K and HDR capabilities. "No Man's Sky" was already gorgeous, but it's going to look even better on Xbox One this summer. 

So, what's in the "NEXT" expansion? 

That's totally unclear. There are no details about the expansion in the press release from the game's development studio, Hello Games, and a request for more information was met with silence. 

Here's the full quote about the upcoming "No Man's Sky" expansion:

"We called this update NEXT, because it's an important next step on a longer journey for us and the community. We’ve been working our socks off on this and it’s by far our biggest update so far. It will be free to existing players, and we'll continue to support 'No Man's Sky' in this way for the foreseeable future."

Other than that text, all we've got are a few (very) pretty images and a release window of "summer 2018." 

Of course, if you haven't played (or even heard of) "No Man's Sky," you may be wondering what all the fuss is about. 

The long and short is this: It's a first-person exploration game, with an impossibly large galaxy full of planets waiting for you to find and explore. Rather than shooting aliens and saving the world, you're scanning for resources and looking through the remnants of past civilizations. It's quite a game!

Read more about "No Man's Sky" right here.

SEE ALSO: The biggest game of 2016 launches this week — here's everything you need to know

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NOW WATCH: A father and son are growing fruit and vegetables 8 metres below the surface of the Mediterranean Sea — here's why

• Actor Jim Carrey has become a political artist and activist on Twitter, amassing over 18 million followers.
• He regularly tweets politically charged and timely artwork — and has sparked backlash in some cases.
• A clear style emerged in the art back in November.

Actor Jim Carrey has gained a reputation recently for not only being something of a recluse, but for being an outspoken political artist and activist on Twitter.

Carrey has been busier than usual this month. He's tweeted drawings that criticize everyone from Mark Zuckerberg for Facebook's handling of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, to President Trump in a sexually explicit drawing.

And he has sparked controversies, such as the conservative backlash he got earlier this month for posting an unflattering image of White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, in which he called her "monstrous."

But when did this new style of art from Carrey begin?

The first public instance appears to be in November. A drawing of former strategist to Trump, Steve Bannon, that Carrey tweeted on November 10, 2017, seems to have set a precedent for the art that would come after it. The art features Bannon's face with the word "fool" drawn over it. That same day, Carrey tweeted a drawing of former Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore. Similar to the Bannon piece, Moore's face had the word "danger" drawn over it.

Carrey has regularly posted drawings since then, almost always inspired by current political events. His Twitter has attracted over 18 million followers.

We don't know what Carrey will say next, or what art he'll post, but until then, we've rounded up a selection of his politically artistic tweets since he debuted the distinct style in November.

Below is a timeline of Carrey's politically charged artwork:

SEE ALSO: Will Ferrell says he will delete his Facebook page over the Cambridge Analytica scandal — and he's not the only actor doing it

November 10, 2017

Tweet Embed:
https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/928860839309819904?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
I’m Steve Bannon and I endorse Roy Moore for US Senate.He stands accused of molesting a 14yr old girl,but at least he’s not a Democrat! ?8^¥ pic.twitter.com/p2ojKqVS47

November 10, 2017

Tweet Embed:
https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/929063564970622976?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Alabama GOP, if u can’t vote 4 Doug Jones at least don’t vote for an alleged pedophile. Do the decent thing and just stay home. ;^| pic.twitter.com/KPzIZKLj6X

November 29, 2017

Tweet Embed:
https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/935914112994832389?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
The GOP and WH have become sinister conclaves of souless traitors, liars and thieves - a gangrene we must remove so democracy can live. #killthebillpic.twitter.com/DzXdh68qVB

• Taylor Swift is releasing her latest video exclusively on Spotify.
• Spotify's CEO retweeted Swift's announcement with three flame emojis.
• Swift's tweet is a marked change of tune from just four years ago, when she pulled her music from Spotify after writing an editorial in The Wall Street Journal blasting the streaming industry.

Pop music star Taylor Swift tweeted that a new video for her song Delicate was being released on Monday "only on Spotify."

"Hey guys, I'm at rehearsals for the Reputation stadium tour and I just wanted to let you know there's a brand new video for Delicate coming out tonight, only on Spotify, so check it out," she said in a video. 

Even Spotify CEO Daniel Ek is excited. He retweeted Swift, and added three flame emojis.

The rapprochement between the two is notable because Swift has been the music star most closely associated with a mistrust of streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music. 

Swift's announcement also happened on a day when Apple launched expanded music video support on Apple Music, including exclusive videos from A Tribe Called Quest and Beck. Apple also launched curated music video playlists as well as the ability to download videos for offline playback. 

Swift's tweet is a marked change of tune from just four years ago, when Swift pulled all of her music from Spotify after writing an editorial in The Wall Street Journal blasting the streaming industry.

"It’s my opinion that music should not be free, and my prediction is that individual artists and their labels will someday decide what an album’s price point is," she wrote. 

Her record "1989" wasn't on Spotify for years until it finally surfaced on Spotify last summer. Her most recent album, "Reputation," was released as a physical CD for three weeks before it eventually became available on streaming services including Spotify and Apple Music. 

Spotify plans to make privately held shares available to buy and sell on the NYSE next week. 

There's already an existing video for "Delicate" on Vevo and YouTube, but the Swift video for Spotify will be new. Check the older video out below: 

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• There's no rule that says you have to become successful by the age of 25.

• Just look at what some of the most successful people out there were doing in their mid-twenties.

• Some individuals, like Beyoncé and Steve Jobs, had already made it big.

• But many other famous and successful individuals were just starting out.

Everyone's path to success is different.

For some, it's mostly linear. Others encounter more twists, turns, and bumps along the way.

Donald Trump, for example, was born into a real estate development family, and he inherited his father's business at 25, according to Bio.

J.K. Rowling, on the other hand, was still a struggling writer daydreaming about a magical world in her mid-twenties.

To prove that no two paths to success are alike, we've highlighted what Trump, Rowling, and 29 other successful people were doing at age 25.

SEE ALSO: 11 wildly successful people who dropped out of high school

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J.K. Rowling came up with the idea for the Harry Potter series on a train.

Rowling was 25 years old when she came up with the idea for Harry Potter during a delayed four-hour train ride in 1990.

She started writing the first book that evening, but it took her years to actually finish it. While working as a secretary for the London office of Amnesty International, Rowling was fired for daydreaming too much about Harry Potter, and her severance check would help her focus on writing for the next few years.

During these years, she got married, had a daughter, got divorced, and was diagnosed with clinical depression before finally finishing the book in 1995. It was published in 1997.

Donald Trump took over his father's real estate development company.

At the age of 25, US President Donald Trump was given control of his father's company, Elizabeth Trump & Son, which he later renamed the Trump Organization, according to Bio. He soon became involved in large, profitable building projects in Manhattan.

Mark Cuban was a bartender in Dallas.

At age 25, Cuban had graduated from Indiana University and had moved to Dallas. He started out as a bartender and then a salesperson for a PC software retailer. He got fired because he wanted to go close a deal rather than open a store in the morning. That helped inspire him to open his first business, MicroSolutions.

"When I got to Dallas, I was struggling — sleeping on the floor with six guys in a three-bedroom apartment," Cuban writes in his book "How to Win at the Sport of Business." "I used to drive around, look at the big houses, and imagine what it would be like to live there and use that as motivation."

• Steven Spielberg proves he can still do the blockbuster movie better than anyone else with "Ready Player One."
• It's the best Spielberg "ride" movie since "Catch Me If You Can."

With Steven Spielberg at the helm adapting a book that celebrates the geeky decade when he was at his peak, it's OK to go into "Ready Player One" (in theaters now) with a whole lot of skepticism.

Is Spielberg too close to the material to be able to pull off a story that is true to Ernest Cline's book?

No. It's as simple as that.

Spielberg — along with the screenwriter Zak Penn ("X-Men: The Last Stand," "Last Action Hero") and Cline (who is also a credited screenwriter) — creates an event film that has to be seen on a big screen to be fully appreciated.

Along with the countless pop-culture references (I don't think I could catch them all even if I saw it five more times), Spielberg dusts off his action-adventure storytelling toolbox to prove to everyone he still can make a blockbuster movie at a high level.

Lately the Oscar-winning director has focused on more serious fare like "The Post," "Bridge of Spies," "Lincoln," and "War Horse." That means many moviegoers haven't gotten that incredible Spielberg pulse-pounding, entertaining movie in over a decade. Even when he tried to sprinkle in a few catered to the under-30 crowd in that time — "The BFG" and "The Adventures of Tintin" — they were box-office duds that were mostly ignored by the Spielberg die-hards. (And I'm not even going to mention "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull." Just pretend that never happened.)

For a Spielberg blockbuster that was universally praised, you have to go all the way back to Tom Cruise running from aliens in 2005's "War of the Worlds." But I'll go even further back than that.

Personally, I think "Ready Player One" is Spielberg's most enjoyable movie since 2002's "Catch Me If You Can" starring Leonardo DiCaprio.

I know what you're going say: "How can a movie about a check forger running from the FBI for years compare to a movie about a crippled future where everyone is addicted to virtual reality?"

The ride.

What Spielberg still does better than any other filmmaker is take you on a thrilling ride while sitting in a dark theater. I had that feeling watching DiCaprio con his way through "Catch Me If You Can," and I finally had that feeling once more in a Spielberg movie when I saw "Ready Player One."

If you're not familiar with the book, Wade Watts (played by Tye Sheridan) lives in the year 2044 in Oklahoma City's poverty-stricken trailer-home community known as "The Stacks" (trailers are literally stacked one on top of one another). In this future the world has been decimated by a slew of disasters — both technological and environmental — that have led society to basically give up and head to a new world.

That new world is not Mars or another planet but rather the virtual-reality world of the Oasis.

There people can be and do whatever they want through their avatars. The longer you are in the Oasis and building a coin count, the more cool things you can accumulate. And thanks to the creator of the Oasis, James Halliday (Mark Rylance), there's also a whole slew of 1980s pop-culture references he loved as a kid ("You can even climb a mountain with Batman," Wade says at the beginning of the movie).

But there's one more big reason to enter the Oasis. When Halliday died (before the events of the movie), he announced that he had left an Easter egg buried somewhere in the Oasis and that the first person to find it would receive a fortune and ownership of the Oasis. He also left three keys that lead to the Easter egg. But at the start of the movie, it's been five years and no one has found any of the keys.

During "Ready Player One," we follow Wade and his friends as they try to find the keys. But they aren't the only ones looking. The corporation IOI has a team of people working day and night to find the egg led by a former Halliday intern, Nolan Sorrento (Ben Mendelsohn).

Spielberg still gives us his baseline theme that is in almost all of his movies: the main character's troubled family life. But for the most part we are in the Oasis following Wade's journey. Things pick up when Wade discovers a cheat to the race he's been trying to win with no success (driving the DeLorean from "Back to the Future," Wade can never seem to get past King Kong to the finish line). With the victory, he becomes the first person to get the first key.

A lot of that race is spoiled in the movie's trailers, but it's merely an appetizer for what's to come. It's when Wade goes after the second key that the movie kicks into another level.

I'm not going to give it away. All I can say is that's where the "ride" feel of a Spielberg movie kicked in for me. You could just feel the energy change in the theater I was in when we all realized what was about to happen.

And the movie just becomes more fun as it goes on. Along with the action, it sprinkles in a love story between Wade and Samantha (Olivia Cooke), and a race to beat Sorrento that juggles between reality and the Oasis. There's also a great message about the need, as human beings, to have real-world interaction and not be plugged in all the time.

Listen, I'm not trying to say we should put "Ready Player One" on the Mount Rushmore of Spielberg classic movies. What I hope I'm getting across is if you missed that Spielberg ride (or haven't experienced it yet in your life), this movie is going to give it to you.

SEE ALSO: All 30 Steven Spielberg movies, ranked by how much money they made at the US box office

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• Twitch's most popular game streamer, Tyler "Ninja" Blevins, is facing blowback after accidentally using a racial slur during a stream this week.
• Blevins said the n-word while freestyling during the opening of the Logic song, "44 More." The song doesn't use the word — Blevins inserted it on his own.
• On Thursday morning, Blevins apologized on Twitter.

Tyler "Ninja" Blevins, the most popular streamer on Amazon-owned Twitch, is facing blowback from fans and critics after he accidentally used a racial slur during a stream this week.

Blevins can be heard using a slang derivation of the n-word, a racial slur, on a clip from the stream right here:

Blevins was freestyling over the opening beats to Logic song, "44 More." In the song, rapper Logic says:

"Ayy, b---h, I've been goin' and goin' like the Energizer
Yeah, I'm supplyin' the wood like Elijah
In the cut, smokin' on indica
Might f--k around and compartmentalize ya
They say, they say life is a bitch
And if that is the case then I'm finna surprise her"

The song doesn't use the slang word/slur, but Blevins inserted it regardless. 

On Thursday, Blevins apologized.

"While I am confident that most of this is a misunderstanding, I recognize that it’s my responsibility to never let there be THIS kind of a misunderstanding," he wrote on Twitter. "More than anything, I hate that any of my friends, fans, or viewers might feel disrespected."

Unlike other Twitch streamers/YouTube stars who've gotten into trouble with viewers for using racial pejoratives, such as YouTube star Felix "PewDiePie" Kjellberg, Blevins wasn't using the word with animosity or harmful intent.

That said, for someone who's most recent accomplishment was breaking streaming records by playing with Drake, it's an especially bad mistake.

"Wonder how Drake would feel if Ninja dropped the N-bomb while playing duos," one Twitter user pointed out. 

"I apologize to anyone who might feel hurt because I NEVER want that. It’s my stream, and it’s on me to make that right," Blevins said on Thursday. "I promise that there was no mal intent (I wasn’t even trying to say the word-I fumbled lyrics and got tongue tied in the worst possible way). Again, I apologize for offending anyone and appreciate you all rocking with me."

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When a Disney/Pixar "March Madness" bracket started making the rounds on the internet recently, I was compelled to fill it out.

It pitted classic (and some new) animated Disney movies against Disney-owned animation studio Pixar.

Some of the match-ups were near impossible (you want me to pick between "Inside Out" and "Finding Nemo?"), while others were a little too easy ("Toy Story 3" vs. "The Good Dinosaur").

But one thing was always clear in my mind: "The Incredibles," about a family of superheroes, is Pixar's best film.

It has tough competition. While Pixar has had some misses in recent years, it is still known for high-quality animated films, from "Toy Story" to "Up" to "Coco."

But for me, "The Incredibles" stands above them all as a near-perfect movie (and one of the greatest superhero movies of all time) about family, responsibility, and teamwork. I fell in love with it when I saw it in a theater at 11 years old and still love it to this day.

After 14 years of waiting, a sequel finally comes to theaters in June from the director of the first movie, Brad Bird — but it has a lot to live up to.

Below are 4 reasons why "The Incredibles" is Pixar's best movie:

SEE ALSO: All 30 Steven Spielberg movies, ranked by how much money they made at the US box office

It captures the best aspects of classic superhero stories — while also being ahead of its time.

"The Incredibles" isn't just Pixar's best movie — it's also one of the best superhero movies of all time. It captures the essence of classic superhero stories, while also introducing concepts that would be touched on in future ones.

"With great power, comes great responsibility" is Spider-Man's famous creed, and the characters of "The Incredibles" embody this as well. As a family of superheroes, Bob and Helen Parr, a.k.a. Mr. Incredible and Elastigirl, must drill into their kids' heads that their powers are a major responsibility and shouldn't be taken lightly, which can be said for a lot of things kids will encounter growing up. By the end of the film, the Parrs finally realize that if they want their kids to take their powers seriously, they have to learn to trust them with those powers, too. 

And the fact that it focuses on a family of superheroes also evokes a Fantastic Four-like quality — meaning it's basically the best "Fantastic Four" movie ever made.

But "The Incredibles" was also ahead of its time.

In the beginning of the film, superheroes are forced to retire by the government when public outrage over the heroes' unchecked power reaches new heights. If it sounds familiar, it's similar to what happens in Marvel Comics' "Civil War" event, and then in the 2016 movie "Captain America: Civil War," where the government passes legislation that forces superhumans to register their identities.  

It's a thrilling action movie ...

"The Incredibles" has by far the best action sequences of any Pixar movie, which admittedly doesn't exactly make it "better" than any of them on its own, but it does give it an edge. 

The action in "The Incredibles" puts you on the edge of your seat.

Take the nail-biting plane crash sequence, for instance. Helen is flying a jet to the island that Bob is trapped on, and discovers that the kids, Dash and Violet, snuck on board. The villain Syndrome launches a missile at the plane, and the moments that follow are simply thrilling. When Violet can't project a force-field over the plane, Helen has to scoop them up and parachute down to the water below, and all the while Bob can only listen in terror as he believes his family was just killed.

... but also a relatable family drama.

I already touched on how "The Incredibles" deals with themes of family, which isn't new to Pixar stories. But "The Incredibles" was the first of the bunch that felt like it was truly relatable for any age group.

The movie was Pixar's sixth animated feature, after "Toy Story," "A Bug's Life," "Toy Story 2," "Monster's Inc.," and "Finding Nemo." What do all of those movies have in common that "The Incredibles" doesn't? They all focus on non-human characters.

Nothing against toys, bugs, monsters, or fish, but "The Incredibles" was the first Pixar movie with human main characters, ones you could truly identify with whether you're a parent or a child. The other movies captured feelings we could identify with — whether it was nostalgia for childhood or the anxiety over losing a loved one — but "The Incredibles" dealt with mature themes and delivered them in a way more people could connect with. Sure, they were superheroes, but they were also flawed characters.

As we get further into 2018, more of your favorite TV shows are ending their runs.

Some shows ending this year include ABC's "The Middle," FX's "The Americans," FXX's "You're the Worst," and Netflix's "House of Cards."

Most of these shows were popular with critics or audiences throughout their runs, and some are (or were) considered among the best shows on TV.

But every show has to end at some point. These have run their course, and their networks decided it's time for them to go.

Is your favorite show coming to an end this year?

Here are all the shows coming to an end in 2018:

SEE ALSO: After 6 Marvel TV shows on Netflix it's become clear that they are both compelling and fundamentally boring at the same time

"Love" — ended March 29, after three seasons on Netflix

"Portlandia" — ended March 22, after eight seasons on IFC

"New Girl" — ends May 15, after seven seasons on Fox

• Teenage girls and young women have been flooding the suspected Florida shooter with fan mail.
• Nikolas Cruz is accused of murdering 17 students and staff members at a Florida high school, and could face the death penalty.
• The women have sent Cruz gushing love letters, revealing photos of themselves, and roughly $800 for his commissary account, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported.

Like many infamous prisoners before him, accused Florida gunman Nikolas Cruz is receiving torrents of fan mail, money, and vulgar photos from teenage girls and young women across the country who say they're attracted to him.

Cruz has been in jail since February 14, the day he allegedly gunned down 17 students and staff members at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland. Prosecutors recently announced they intend to seek the death penalty.

His attorneys said they were shocked by the stacks of letters and cards he has received — many of which included pictures of scantily clad teenagers or gushing descriptions about his looks.

"When I saw your picture on the television, something attracted me to you," one letter from an 18-year-old girl in Texas said, according to the South Florida Sun Sentinel. "Your eyes are beautiful and the freckles on your face make you so handsome."

She added some jokes about gummy bears and peanut butter, and a description of herself: "I'm really skinny and have 34C sized breasts."

Another woman in Chicago reportedly sent Cruz nine salacious photos, including shots of her cleavage and backside, and one of herself in a bikini eating a Popsicle.

Broward County Public Defender Howard Finkelstein told the Sun-Sentinel he hasn't seen anything like it in his 40 years on the job.

"The letters shake me up because they are written by regular, everyday teenage girls from across the nation," he said. "That scares me. It's perverted."

Finkelstein added that about $800, apparently from Cruz's fans, has been deposited into Cruz's commissary account in jail.

Cruz has not received any of the mail since he's currently under suicide watch — and his attorneys said they refuse to read him the fan letters or share any of the girls' photos. Finkelstein said his team has only read certain religious letters to Cruz that "extend wishes for his soul and to come to God."

Jail workers also reportedly open every item sent to Cruz, except legal documents, and return any "obscene" or potentially threatening mail to the senders.

But despite his attorneys' efforts, Cruz is apparently aware of his newfound fame.

A prosecutor involved in a trespassing case against Cruz's brother, Zachary Cruz, said during a court hearing she was concerned about a jail visit Zachary made to Nikolas, in which the two apparently discussed starting a fan club for girls, ABC News reported.

"There is a discussion of starting some kind of pen pal or fan club and see how many girls he is capable of attracting — referring to his brother Nikolas," Assistant State Attorney Sarahnell Murphy said last week. "[Zachary Cruz] has been heard and observed discussing how popular his brother is now."

SEE ALSO: Florida shooting suspect's brother sentenced to 6 months of probation for trespassing on Parkland high school campus

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